First steps S01E04 : Circumcision / かつれい

September 22nd, Monday (Afternoon)

After returning from the cyber cafe, where I spent the night as it was raining way too heavily to walk back home, I was all worn out and extremely tired. I had to get going in three hours time, so in Naza style, I took an hour nap which turned out to be a two hour nap. After I woke up, I proceeded to take a free shower at a nearby dormitory as my water supply has not been reconnected yet. The little things in life that you take for granted...sigh....

Anyways, after a nice shower, I went to school to meet Lily to practice our script for the drama camp we were having today and tomorrow. After about an hour of practice, we went to the university's K2 House which is located half an hour away. It's sort of like a summer house where students get to stay the night to practice for events and what not. There were 9 of us, that attended the drama camp. Six boys and three girls, including one teacher. The boys bunked in two separate rooms, divided by age. The older boys who were in their fourth year and the the younger boys, me included who were in their second year. The girls bunked in one room while the teacher had a room all to herself.

Personally, I enjoyed camps like this cause you get to socialise outside of the classroom but the main problem I kept having in such camps, is that language is constantly a barrier especially when you're talking about things outside of class where the vocabulary is so random. Most of the time when the Japanese joke, all I could do was smile and pretend I know the joke. It definitely takes a toll on your self esteem but I guess that is what most people go through when they are communicating in their second ( in my case, fourth or fifth) language. Wouldn't it be nice if all of us were to be programmed like a computer where we can just insert a chip and we'll be able to communicate fluently in a foreign language. Lol..wishful thinking I guess...

Anyways, after 6 long hours of script rehearsal (we're performing the play on December 18th and 19th in front of a large audience (when large, I mean 30 to 40), the play was written by Neil Simon and it's entitled California suite), where for the first time in my life, the teacher actually taught the students how to swear properly (??), we went for dinner. At dinner, like always, I'm blur when it comes to half the topic of conversations but I held strong although half of me is dying to go back home and curl up in a nice comfy bed. The nice thing about the dinner though was that for the first time, we get to learn something more about each other. Not as a student, but as a person. They asked about my reason for coming to Japan, how I fit in to Japanese society and stuffs. It was nice to have people wanting to know more about you, I would think.

After dinner, we had the infamous 二次会 (which is a custom in Japan, something like an after party) at the K2 house. We played games, talked and laughed. The highlight of the whole party has to be the two hour conversation on circumcision. The Japanese were so interested in the whole Jewish and Muslim circumcision process that they actually spent two hours talking and laughing about it. The girls actually participated actively in the conversation. It felt like for the first time, it didn't matter whether you're a foreigner or Japanese, man or woman, everyone could talk freely without fear of being judged. Even in Malaysia, I never had a conversation on this topic before so it was interesting having to talk about this in what is supposed to be a conservative, traditional Eastern country.

After the after party, all of us went to bed at about 2 am. Before going to bed, me and this other friend from the same faculty talked about travelling to different countries. Hearing his stories on his travel to several countries in Europe made me reminisce about my trip to Bangkok. I began to long for an adventure. So I asked him if he was interested in having a road trip to the southern island of Japan (Fukuoka) and from there we could take a ferry to South Korea. Surprisingly, he was up for it and we decided to carry out the trip in February or March. I am not sure if he rememebered the trip as he was half drunk. LOL. I'll ask him again sometime in December.

The night ended in a high and three days back in Japan, I felt satisfied with what I have accomplished. My water supply will be returning tomorrow and owh before I forget, I got reply from one of the jobs I applied for. It's the one for the Malaysian restaurant. I am expected to have an interview this coming Friday. Hope it goes well cause God knows, I don't want to get back to the post office.

Coming up next :
Job interview reveals something about the job that gets Naza wondering where his moreal boundaries are....